INTERVIEW: Hagit Yakira on Hagit Yakira dance's autumn 2017 tour

Award-winning Hagit Yakira dance presents Free Falling, an open-hearted double bill of down-to-earth dance that’s sensual, striking and a beautiful respite from the hustle and bustle.

Based on a collection of stories gathered through years of working as a therapist, Hagit Yakira has created a powerful and atmospheric mixed bill that eloquently uncovers real life experiences about common uncertainties we share.

In anticipation of Hagit Yakira dance’s autumn tour, The Insanity In Dancing interviews Hagit to find out more about her background and her choreographic work.

Hagit Yakira (PC: Camilla Greenwell)

Maya Pindar: tell us about your time in Israel as a young person, how did you discover dance?

Hagit Yakira: I discovered dance at three different moments in my life. First as a little girl, I always danced, I loved it! Then again in my teens whilst dancing at the Jerusalem academy of music and dance I developed a complex relationship to dance - kind of love and hate relationships to it. And then in my early 30s when I chose choreography as my profession; when I realised that dance is what I have to do. I have to dance, create and make other people move.

MP: tell us about your choreographic processes and methods

HY: I work collaboratively, meaning I come to a process with a subject matter, with a sensation, with an idea. I then offer it to the dancers through different physical tasks, improvisation and group work and see what happens. I direct the dancers to a state of mind and a teamwork which I wish to convey on stage - I try not to force it on the dancers, but to lead them to it through very demanding and precise physical explorations. In that way there is a constant dialogue between the dancers and me. 

I am an emotional woman; I understand the world through my feelings, sensations, emotions and this is also how I treat my work. It is emotional and therefore and accordingly the creative process is as well. In that way I treat emotions, sensations and feelings as a concept to explore intellectually and physically. To me they are a most insightful source of knowledge to explore and experiment with. 

PC: Camilla Greenwell

MP: what inspired you to draw upon your experiences as a therapist for Free Falling?

HY: The depth and richness of being a human being. What I mean is – is that as a therapist I met many sides of humanity that I was less aware of – different scales of compassion, empathy, struggles, pain, acceptance, patience - it was important for me - still is - to work with these. 

MP: what has the biggest challenge been in the creation of the double bill?

HY: Time and money! This is probably something all the artists who work within the scale that we do have to face. Very little means, not much time but very big expectations.

MP: in a nutshell, what can we expect from Free Falling?

HY: Feelings, emotions, humanity and connectivity.

PC: Camilla Greenwell

MP: finally, which one piece of advice would you now offer a young Hagit?

HY: Do it your own way! Don't give up and always combine it with other things - with life! With love! With friends, food, traveling, books whatever takes you away from dance a bit... Give it everything you can but then know when to give it absolutely nothing!

Free Falling collaborators - 

Sabio Janiak                            Music
Michael Mannion                   Lighting Design
Lou Cope                                  Dramaturge

Elizabeth Barker                    Costumes
Bettina John                             Costumes

Gene Giron                               Production Manager 

Free Falling dancers - Sophie Arstall, Joel Benjamin O’Donoghue, Stephen Moynihan, Verena Schneider  

Find out more about Hagit Yakira dance and the upcoming tour here.